The Master and Margarita. continued his conversation with Ivan, So how did you end up here?

continued his conversation with Ivan, " So how did you end up here? "

" Because of Pontius Pilate, " Ivan replied, looking sullenly down at the floor.

" What?! " shouted the guest, abandoning caution, and then clamping his hand over his mouth. " A striking coincidence! I beg you, I beg you, tell me all about it! "

Feeling for some reason that he could trust the stranger, Ivan began telling him about yesterday's happenings at Patriarch's Ponds, starting out haltingly and timidly, but then growing bolder as he went along. And indeed, Ivan Nikolayevich found a sympathetic listener in this mysterious key thief! The guest did not treat Ivan as if he were a madman, showed the greatest interest in what he was saying, and became ecstatic as the story progressed. He kept interrupting Ivan with exclamations, " Well, well, go on, go on, I beg you! Only in the name of all that's holy, don't leave anything out! "

Ivan left nothing out, for he himself found it easier to tell the story that way, and gradually he got to the point where Pontius Pilate came out on the balcony in his white cloak with the blood-red lining.

The guest then folded his hands as if in prayer and whispered, " Oh, I guessed right! I guessed everything right! "

Following the description of Berlioz's horrible death the listener made a puzzling remark, and his eyes flashed with hatred, " I'm just sorry that it wasn't Latunsky, the critic, or that hack Mstislav Lavrovich instead of Berlioz." And in a frenzy, but noiselessly, he exclaimed, " Go on! "

The cat who paid his fare was a big hit with the guest, and he choked with silent laughter as he watched Ivan, excited by the success of his storytelling, jump down on his haunches and pantomime the cat holding a coin up to his whiskers.

" And so, " Ivan concluded, after telling about the events at Griboyedov and again becoming gloomy and sad, " that's how I wound up here."

The guest laid a sympathetic hand on the poor poet's shoulder and said, " Unhappy poet! But you, dear fellow, brought it all on yourself! You shouldn't have acted so carelessly, even rudely, with him. Now you're paying the price. Why, you should be grateful you got off relatively cheaply."

" But who was he anyway? " asked Ivan, shaking his fists in agitation.

The guest stared at Ivan and answered with a question " You're not going to get all upset now, are you? All of us here are unstable... There won't be any calls for the doctor, or injections, or other stuff like that, will there? "

" No, no! " exclaimed Ivan, " just tell me who he is."

" All right then, " replied the guest, weighing his words and speaking distinctly, " Yesterday at Patriarch's Ponds you had a meeting with Satan."